Wednesday, July 17, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., Orcas School cafeteria
— from Yonatan Aldort, Janet Alderton, Jennifer Barcelos, Lisa Byers, Andrea Cohen, Toby Cooper, Andrew Hursh, Michael Johnson, Artha F. Kass, Mark Mayer, Gregory Oaksen, Heather Dew Oaksen, Margaret Payne, Donna Gerardi Riordan, and Joe Symons —
A diverse group of Orcas residents has been gathering information about the extent and trends of vacation rentals on Orcas Island, San Juan County, and other communities nationally and internationally.
Currently there is no limit on the number of vacation rentals in San Juan County, and permits convey with the sale of a property. Unlike official businesses like bed and breakfasts, hotels and resorts, licensing constraints are minimal for vacation rentals.
The majority of owners of vacation rental properties (51%) do not live in San Juan County. We wonder if these are residential or commercial properties. We’d like to know more about how vacation rentals impact affordable housing, the composition of our community, the costs of infrastructure, environmental quality and our quality of life. And we’re exploring the measures that other communities have enacted to accommodate/include vacation rentals.
Please join us on Wednesday, July 17, 6:30-8:30 PM at the public school cafeteria for a Community Conversation about vacation rentals. At the gathering, information will be provided and there will be time for questions and answers from our community. We hope to arrive at a way for Orcas Island to move forward with a constructive conversation about this critical issue.
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Vacation rentals and tourism have pros and cons. Residents are responding to the changed environment and livability of their neighborhoods.
A real opportunity for success lies in tourism businesses partnering with other interests to establish a sustainable economy and environment. Solutions may depend on innovative and proactive policy decisions by elected officials, who are thoughtful about the kind of community they are developing.
A policy approach that aligns with commerce only and invests revenue in attracting more tourism could pose a problem. Alternatively, tourism-based revenue could promote a more diverse economy and livability of the environment (e.g., affordable housing, public transportation, public health promotion, social services and workforce development).
Orcas is at a tipping point that requires visionary leadership. For example, home health care is a growth industry that is critically needed and could provide local jobs with opportunities for career advancement. There is economic opportunity beyond tourism on Orcas.
Allowing permits for vacation rentals to convey with the sale of a property seems to be a sure-fire way to encourage these homes as investments, many of which are attractive to non-residents. Some properties have been advertised with an income estimate.
Yes, vacation rentals contribute to our economy, but unless the owner is resident it also contributes to loss of neighborhoods.
Wish I could be at the meeting
There are no “pro”s to vacation rentals, on an island where there already is insufficient worker-housing stock.
What economic advantage could there possibly be, in homes which stand vacant for eight or nine months of the year, while island businesses can’t find employees because workers have no place to live?
Is it humane and appropriate that individuals, and even families, have to camp out in a car or a tent while earning a middle-class living?
I suggest a county ordinance which requires that every island vacation rental and dwelling which stands empty for more than five months in a given year must also provide adequate space for a “caretaker” family to live year-’round.
At the very minimum, Orcas needs a registry of all vacation rentals, and these properties should be subject to the same taxes and general rules as hotels. Why penalize hospitality operators that follow the rules?
If we ignore the residential zoning and allow all our properties to be used as hotels, the price of lodging will gradually rise to the price of a hotel room, and the people who keep this community running will slowly be priced out. This is already happening.
Just because Orcas is a small town doesn’t mean that it won’t become like Venice or Barcelona – places where local community has been replaced by something more akin to Disney World. That would be incredibly sad for this special little island.
Saying that regulating short term rentals will harm commercial activity on the island is bogus. There is plenty of lodging on the island, and plenty of ways to add more if that’s what Orcas wants/needs. But if we do add more, we should do so consciously, intentionally, and legally.
This is an issue about fairness, community, and culture. I sincerely hope that Orcas chooses a path that protects what is special about this place.
How many vacation rental owners are included in this group? Who will be leading the conversation?
Steve Henigson–I cannot decide whether your comment is serious or sarcastic. Vacation rentals and vacation homes (often they are both) that “stand empty” for months every year pay FULL taxes and support county services that they seldom if ever use. Schools, for example.
Again, the notion that most of the vacation rentals on the island would otherwise be available for “affordable” housing is misguided. Employers need to begin to pay wages sufficient to allow employees to rent, and could in fact do what many businesses already do: work to supply the housing in question.
BTW, the County under a former Council decided to abandon an appeal and agreed to prohibit the existence of most accessory dwelling units that could take much of the pressure off the housing market. So, be sure to thank them when you see them.
Peg: if the vacation rental owners wish to attend they may do so. There is not a “group” as such. Just people who wish to discuss the issue which seems to be of rather great importance to our island.
As with most great debates a conflict of rights is a the heart of this one. The owners of a property put up up for short term rental are exercising their rights to use the property to produce income. The residents of the island have the right to live in peace, and as close to the way the property was when it was purchased.
As far as the water, an inverted rate structure that charges more per gallon as usage goes up gives the short term rental owner an incentive to pass the cost of the water onto the renters.
I would suggest a county ordinance that allows neighbors of short term rentals to collect fees from the owners for a disturbance of the residents lives. Documenting trash, noise, parking, all of which could add to the fees the STR owner had to pay to the neighbors. STR owners would face an upward pressure on the costs of having these properties, increasing rents or changing the use of the property. Neighbors would see compensation for the violation of property rights.
When we speak of “community”, I have always believed in “inclusiveness” as a fundamental premise in order for a group to call itself a community.
We’re all in this together, including owners, managers, and housekeepers of VRBOs and AirB&Bs, so I’m hopeful that this “conversation” will include folks from across the full spectrum of interests that make up the community of Orcas.
Peg, I think that it was all Randy Gaylord that gave in to the Friends of the San Juans and made it almost impossible for anyone to build a guest house even though over 73% of the residents were in favor of guest houses. Their reasons were a bunch of crap too. Ťhey claimed that if guest houses continued to be built the density in the county would more than double to 57,000 people. They just didn’t want the everyday workers and renters living anywhere other than the urban growth area stacked on top of each other. I’ll never forget what they did to Charles and how they did it with their spying. Now look where we are 10 years later.
Darlene–Actually, it was the three-person Council led by Kevin Ranker. Randy was still fighting the good fight in the appeal and we were expecting a decision favorable to the islanders who wanted guesthouses. This really should be revisited in the Comprehensive Plan.
Fred is right–A forum called by proponents of one “side” without a formal agenda or much in the way of briefing on data in hand or what’s Constitutional or legal isn’t going to make much progress. (Most of the proposals I’ve heard, like Rob’s below, are either flatly unconstitutional or fatally impractical.)
I’m curious where everyone was when the County Council and Planning Commission considered vacation rentals and held hearings, the County required all existing holders to reapply, pay fees, and comply with strict new rules, and hired an enforcement officer to address compliance issues–just last year.
Just a few days ago, the planning department reported that only about 1/3 of the existing permit holders have applied for and received the new permits under the new restrictions. (The old list included everyone who ever applied and received a permit, going back many years, regardless of current status.) The enforcement officer is at the ready to hear of violations (both rental without permits and failure to follow the new rules. Violators can be now be easily identified. Significant fines are in place. The remaining permits will be void.
Useful steps would be 1) to invite the enforcement officer to discuss the new rules and process; 2) have our Councilman there; 3) have a neutral moderate the discussion.